Kia Stinger reverse-ages Steven Tyler in Super Bowl ad

Picture this: It's night, and you're walking down a neon-soaked, rainy sidewalk, people are everywhere shouting about some big football game and the smell of street food fills your nostrils. All of a sudden, a strange man in a long coat sidles up to you as you pass a doorway. He leans in, and in a hushed whisper, asks if you want to see something weird.

"Yeah, I guess so," you say, almost immediately regretting the fact that you've got nothing better to be doing.

The man gestures towards the doorway; a faint glow is visible from the crack at the bottom. You approach, and he opens it. This is what you see:

After a few minutes, the shock and revulsion wears off from seeing Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, who may be an actual real-life Lich (for reference, see Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Monster Manual page 202-203), do a full Benjamin Button just to sell you the performance-oriented Kia Stinger GT.

You determine that you'll need to do some serious drinking later to blot that image out, and you start to ponder why Kia would go to all this trouble and expense to sell you an already fantastic car?

Yeah, we wondered that too.

This is a seriously weird ad for a car that pretty much everyone already loves. We gave it our Roadshow Shift Award Vehicle of the Year, for Pete's sake. Obviously the Super Bowl is a chance for otherwise sane car companies to set fire to their already massive ad budgets in an attempt to outdo one another, but hey, Kia, maybe back it down a notch?

We know you've been the butt of a lot of jokes over the years but take a look in the mirror? You're crushing it, Kia! You're Rachael Leigh Cook in "She's All That!" Chill out or if you're going to insist on going belt-and-braces for next year's Super Bowl ad, at least consider not taking the lowest bid for visual effects and hire Taika Waititi instead.